Monthly Archives: August 2012

Why MBA? Positives and Negatives found whilst studying an MBA at the University of Adelaide

So what’s it like studying an MBA? Why do it and would I recommend it?

These are some of the questions I get asked about my Adelaide University MBA study. In short, yes I recommend it, but there’s a better answer, with disclaimers.

Studying an MBA is great, but it depends on your motivation for doing it. What do you want to get out of it?

It’s a LOT of work if you’re just after a bit of paper. Adelaide works on trimester system. For each trimester, you’ll be giving up 3 hours of your time for lectures, somewhere between two and seven hours a week preparing for them (reverse class room style), and then there’s all the time spent on assignments and exam preparation. At three subjects per year, this repeats for four years.

Does everyone really do that much work? Well, no – if you believe in the undergrad saying ‘P’s get Degrees‘ then you may get away with less effort. Even so, it’s still a big commitment.

To give you something to think about, here’s a brief list of positives and negatives of MBA study.

Marketing Levels of Scales Summary

When working with marketing research you may come across the concept of the four “levels of scales”, or “levels of measurement”. All measurements collected by the three marketing instruments: questionnaires, qualitative measures and technological devices will measured by one of these forms of data.

Humans are complex beings. Often we react to an idea in a negative or agressive way, when actually, the idea is quite good.

Why? We’re all logical beings, right? This is reactance at work.

Innovation, change and reactance

Psychologist Jack Brehm coined the term reactance in 1966. It covers the human behavours around resistance to new ideas or persuasion that results in hostility and flouting of authority. Fundamentally, we do not like to be told what to do, think or like, and this results in negative behaviour that is not always appropriate. Reactance is a great stifler of innovation and change.

Four strategies to stop customers fixating on price

A universal fear of companies is the chance that one or more of their products could be considered a commodity by their consumers.

Why is this so bad? If the customer views your product as a commodity, they will shop around for the best price, they will believe that there is no tangible benefit in buying from you over another supplier, thinking your product is equal to a host of other companies products.

Buyers in a commoditised market will focus on price, show scepticism, have low expectations on additional services, have low brand loyalty and have a very strong preference for swift and effortless transactions.